After years of being a trainer and training manager, I am in a new role now where I have the opportunity to influence software design for training. So I ask you ...

What frustrates you about any training/learning software that you have?

What features are missing?

What pain points exist in your job that could possibly be solved with software?

Any other comments would be appreciated as well. Don't worry about feasibility and such. I am just trying to get some good brainstorming ideas from people with different perspectives than my own. Thanks!

Some pain points:
* Not enough Open Source or Open Source compatible tools

* Need better presentation software better supporting multiple screens, user interaction, rich media.

* Need more web 2.0 tools, particularly for in-class collaboration.

That's a start. I know technology has to be used well to improve "training", but these are suggestions I could use.

quote:

What frustrates you about any training/learning software that you have?

Biggest frustration isn't really with the software - it's with appropriate use of the tool. I know that companies who make this type of software might be shooting themselves in the proverbial foot if they were to do this, but I would really love to see these companies presenting their software within the realm of when and how it ought to be used; not as a means to "e-learnify" everything.

Thanks for the responses thus far.

John - Can you expand a bit on what you mean by "in-class collaboration?" I assume you mean interactions among the learners, but I just want to be clear.

LoveLearning - I agree. That is one of my frustrations as well. Unfortunately that is driven by the people buying the software too ... sort of a chicken-egg problem.

Just to share my own side of this story, when I was a training manager I wanted two pieces of software I did not have:

- software to help my team actually *design* a course instead of creating the content

- an alternative to Leaderguide Pro for ILT courses; some people use it I know, but I did not like it at all

LoveLearning Nails the Landing-

Yes. New tool, flavor of the month, "we spent money on this and to drive ROI we better put everything in it..." seen far too many politics and just plain misdirected enthusiasm go into some tools.

However, even with the best directed efforts, my largest pain point has actually been lousy vendor support (specifically with an LMS). Truly sweethearts during the sales cycle, but post-implementation, the honeymoon was over.

Best solution I've seen (when I formerly worked at a University) is "the bounce clause" in the contract. Defined in contract is X days after implementation while vendor is still on probation- if tool or support does not meet expectation- they get bounced. Allows the business to test in real-life scenarios, and any vendor that fears this scenario shouldn't be touched (IMO). Every project I've engaged in that had the legal team support this strategy fared much better than those who did not.